For Gandhiji, a great philosopher and freedom fighter who led Indian freedom struggle, education meant, "The drawing out of the best in child and man - body, mind and spirit." For him literacy was no education. He wanted the child to be treated as a whole and imparted knowledge to. He emphasized the development of head, heart and hands. For him, education had its essence in practical work. He thought that the end of all education must be the building of character. Education should bring about the purity of heart.

He hated the kind of education wherein the child's mind is stuffed with all kinds of information without even stimulating or developing him. Thus education is that which draws out and stimulates the spiritual, intellectual and physical faculties of the children.

Gandhiji was a great teacher himself. He wanted teachers to be well trained, proficient men and women of knowledge, faith and enthusiasm. They must be people of character.

Gandhiji wanted to establish a classless, casteless society based on the principles of truth and non-violence. He advocated the introduction of craft in schools for creative self expression, practical work and learning by doing. He wanted children to develop a scientific look. He believed that every child is good by nature. Hence he insisted that the education provided needs to be psychologically sound.

Gandhiji interpreted education as the development of human personality. This outlook goes well with any modern concept of education. 

Yes, make it a habit to narrate stories to your children everyday. The best time slot is one after dinner. Stories stimulate thought processes in your children. They enable children develop their listening ability. Besides they enable children turn communicative. Children listen to stories and appreciate the good actions of the characters there in. The stories format the values and imbibe discipline in children. You may not be able to see immediate returns but they will make a long term impact on the character of children.

I always relished the bed time ritual of my grandpa who used to narrate beautiful stories every day sitting in the veranda of our house in his easy chair. These stories used to wrap up each day with a wonderful sense of well being. Sometimes he used to narrate his own life experiences and at other times stories from great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata or from treasury of stories that are the Bhagavata and the Panchatantra.

The style of his narration, I still remember, used to be naive. He used to bring in new words and use them in right context. He used to speak for different characters and the lucid interesting conversation used to keep us live on our toes.

In summer, we used to sit in the yard after dinner. We had no electricity in those days and it used to be dark. We used to carry our chairs and arrange them in a semicircle. He never used to scare us, and we never dreaded darkness. At times, whenever there was an interval we used to throw our heads back and wonder at the innumerable number of stars in the sky.

My grandpa used to render a touch of philosophy too as the stories unfurled, most of which were reflections from his own life. I always used to wonder at his ability to tell great stories. Clad in a simple dhoti and jubba, he was as simple as the messages in his stories.

Providing enough story books is one thing, but bringing alive the stories in them via narration totally transports the children to another magical world where there imagination runs free and enhances their thinking abilities.

As parents, let us not forget that science thrives on experiments and activities. Science is the how and why of things.

Young children should have scope for innumerable activites. Adults should never have the temptation to give out all the information before its pertinence ever occurs to children.

Science ought to be fun, adventure. Once while I was teaching in highschool, we had an opportunity to put up science exhibits for the All India children's Exhibition organised by National Council for Education Research and Training, New Delhi. I selected a few students to work on the project and they had to stay back after the school hours. One of the students who was scoring well in exams said "I do like to stay and work, Sir, but my mother doesn't want me to join. I am supposed to get a rank in the Tenth Standard Examination". This parent never understood the true nature of Science and how her kid's study should progress. She wanted her kid to be a bookworm, a walking encyclopaedia. She never wanted her child to have any fun.

Let us understand well that science is better learnt through activities, experiences, experiments and projects.

Children's experiences need to be real, concrete and tangiable. We should never get carried away by just contents and facts. Link experiences to children's life. Then they will feel a desire to know.

Remember, these young children will control the world tomorrow. Then they need to develop a better understanding of natural and physical phenomena. There is great drive on the part of children to know and get answers.We need to nurture the ability of kids to ask questions and seek answers. 

I have seen kids expressing, "I have lots of questions, but our teacher asks us to keep shut!" Encourage children to ask questions. Keep yourselves cool, patient and discuss with them. Time spent on answering children's questions is in no way a waste of time.

I see lots of children not performing well. Many parents feel that it is the heredity or the genes children inherit that count. When I underwent teachers' training in the seventies, my psychology professor did say,

"Talent without training is ability lost,
Training without talent is labour lost"

I remember, we debated on this issue over days. Ultimately we concluded that both heredity and environment are important in the making of a kid.

But my experiences as a teacher have proved it the other way. Genes do count in deciding the performance but they are not everything.

Today, I tell in parents' meetings, "Help your kid develop right mental make up, right values and right strategy". How can it happen? Do we have some simple means? The answer is in the affirmative. To put the strategy in a nutshell,

1. Praise, support and encourage your kid. Keep warm relations. Inspire your kid and build up self-esteem.
   
2. Teach your kid, don't blame. Negative approaches always fail.
   
3. Keep assessing your child's strengths and provide varied opportunities.
   
4. Teach your kid techniques of relaxation, concentration and performing with greater efficiency.
   
5. Remind your child of success and steps to it.
   

Never goad your child with bribes, guilt, fear of failure, unhealthy competitive spirit, revenge or shortcuts.

Bringing up kids is a herculean task. Giving kids the right education, the exposure to culture and tradition, meeting their incessant demands, inculcating the best of values in them are all part of it. This section will feature the musings (thoughts) of our chairman, P K Prakash Rao, an eminent educationist with 35 years of experience in the field who follows the subject of kids' psychology with fiery passion. Having worked with kids for 30 years in different schools, this blog is born out of the fountainhead of experience that our chairman embodies.